Framing the Future: Qualcomm and The Atlantic gather in NYC to envision tomorrow’s cities.

August 06, 2015

Tech enthusiasts and visual artists met in Soho last week to discuss how the two groups can come together to alter our collective future. The event, held at the AFA Gallery, showcased Atlantic Re:think and Qualcomm’s collaborative project “Could: Painting What’s Possible,” a three-part creative series that aims to envision the next wave of tech innovation.

Guests had a close-up view of the commissioned artwork, as well as a chance to meet with paper artist Jeff Nishinaka, and painter Robert Minervini. Their mission was to visualize what the future could look like through their chosen mediums. Their final pieces can be found in print in this month’s and upcoming issues of The Atlantic.

The night concluded with a panel discussion led by The Atlantic’s Senior Editor, Derek Thompson, featuring IDEO’s Fred Dust and Mitchell Joachim, Co-Founder of Terreform ONE. The three discussed how art and ideas can intersect, but it was our future cities and how we’ll build them that took precedence over the conversation.

The three mused on how best to incorporate thousands of years of human culture into smart city solutions, and most important, how we’ll sustain these smart cities for future generations. As Joachim concluded, “We shouldn’t have this disaffected relation to nature. We need to combine the ecotopic with the technotopic.”